Recipes, reviews and recreation with the Madhouse Family - one parent, three kids, two dogs, all bilingual !

Wednesday, 28 December 2011

Hello Kitty Cool Cardz Card Design Studio review

Santa delivered a whole host of craft products for the Madhouse mini-testers this Christmas. They were actually delivered for us to review during the Halloween half-term but we were so busy getting out and about in the unseasonably warm weather that we didn't have time to play with them all, so they ended up under the Christmas tree and we'll be reviewing them all over the coming weeks. First up was this Cool Cardz Card Design Studio which instantly made Sophie and Juliette squeal because it features their favourite cat, Hello Kitty.

The kit contains everything you need to create and store your funky cool cardz, which are a bit like customised kiddie business cards. The laminating machine contains two slide out drawers where you can store all the enclosed odds and ends - 2 pens (pink and black), stampers, stickers, ribbons, cards and laminating sheets. This is great for keeping everything nice and tidy and for preventing all the little bits getting lost.

Sophie (complete with Santa hat) got down to the serious business of decorating her cards with pens, stickers and stampers to make it beautiful.

We then had a bit of trouble working out how to use the laminating machine. The idea is simple enough. You have a laminating strip that needs to be peeled off the backing paper and stuck on top of your newly created card, but trying to figure out how to actually achieve this with the laminating machine proved problematic because we couldn't work out how to slide the laminating sheet in properly.

Youtube came to the rescue and we watched this useful vlog tutorial :

After this, it was all much simpler and Sophie managed to created her first card within seconds, as you can see below.

Her second attempt was a special "Best Mum Ever" cool card which put a big smile on my face !

Sophie loves usuing the machine and the finished cards are very cool so she's been making them for her friends, grandparents and teacher. However, the downside is, you only get 15 laminates and cards in the box so you will have to keep buying refills which works out quite expensive at £12.99 a time.

This is a lovely group activity with a lasting souvenir for a birthday party or girlie sleepover.